Holyrood candidates asked to sign up to Face Equality

Changing Faces, the national charity that cares and campaigns for people who have disfigurements to their face or body, is asking candidates in the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections to support its campaign for face equality.

The Pledge states: “110,000 people in Scotland have conditions, marks or scars that affect their appearance. I am proud to stand up for #FaceEquality at #SP16.”

Rob Murray, Manager of Changing Faces in Scotland, said:

We’ve recently heard some great things from Scottish politicians about improving mental health services, and signing the Face Equality Pledge is a great way for them to put their words into action. We want to see an unequivocal commitment to high quality psycho-social care within the NHS for people who have disfigurements, and a determination to stamp out appearance-based discrimination wherever it occurs.

The charity has specialist counsellors working in two hospitals in Scotland, and also works with schools and colleges to help teachers and students handle disfigurement with confidence.

Lindsay, a former client of Changing Faces who lives in Fife, said:

Support from Changing Faces helped me to become the person I am today, and I want to see Scotland’s politicians make commitments to ensure services like Changing Faces’ can help more people in the future. But I also want to see them help Changing Faces stamp out the bullying and discrimination that people like me face on a daily basis.

Changing Faces is asking supporters to contact their local candidates to ask them to sign the Pledge, and will be contacting party leaders directly to ask for their support.

Rob Murray is available for interview by arrangement with the Press Office as above

A list of all candidates who support the Pledge will be published on the campaign page of the Changing Faces website

Changing Faces is a registered charity (no SC039725 in Scotland) and is politically neutral. We are running this campaign to promote our campaign for face equality. Changing Faces does not endorse or support any political party or candidate, and no candidate should use their participation in this campaign to imply that they are endorsed by the charity.